Capturing VHS via Canopus ADVC-110 woes

[Alla Lowery]

Hi Ted,
I’m not sure if my response is still necessary; you’ve posted your question a few months ago and, maybe, have already found the answer. I just couldn’t leave your cry unanswered, because I myself was in the same sad situation with ADVC110 for about a month, surfing the web, reading multiple posts all over the place. I think also that somebody else may be tortured by the Canopus’ set up, and my post could help them, too.

I even returned my first ADVC 110, as I couldn’t make it work by any means, and was sure that it was just a faulty unit. Strangely, many people seemed happy with the Canopus, but they didn’t bother to explain how they had made it work. I couldn’t find an intelligible and concise explanation anywhere – till I finally figured it out all by myself. 🙂 I think also that the Canopus’ manual is written poorly; they could have made at least a hint that such a big app like PPro has a particular sub-menu for their product, and it’s thoroughly hidden from a first-time user. ))))

I have a bit different set up than you do, but I’m sure the pattern is still somewhat similar. – I’m a Windows person and I use Adobe CS5, but the app is basically the same. Well, this is how I did it:

1. Set up the Canopus WITHOUT turning it on. Check, if all of the tiny switches on its bottom are set correctly. If you use PAL VHS, set everything up accordingly (read the manual how).

2. Create a new project in PPro. Choose the format etc. I used DV PAL, 48 kHz.

3. Open the project; on the top menu go to Edit->Preferences->Device Control->Canopus->ADVC 100. It works perfectly for ADVC 110. And MAKE SURE you marked here ONE MORE TIME the same standard as during the first set up – PAL or NTSC. Click OK. Close the project.

4. Now prepare you VHS player. Find the spot you’ll want to record the tape from. Press pause.

5. Turn the Canopus on (aka connect the FW cord). It should trigger PPro. Open the project you’ve just created. Press F5. You’ll see the frame from your VHS player on the Capture screen. Feel free to begin your successful recording. )))))

By the way, I use a devoted FW card and the Grass Valley AC adapter. I wanted to make sure that I prevented all possible glitches. Maybe, all this wasn’t even necessary, but I didn’t want to take chances; I was seriously tired of all those conundrums.

I hope this helps. 🙂

[Jim Askew]

Alla, I signed up for an account with CreativeCow just to thank you for your post! I’m capturing old VHS tapes of my kids from the 90’s and was having no luck figuring out how to make my Canopus work with Premiere. Thanks so much! –Jim

[Alla Lowery]

Hi Jim,
I’m so glad that I could help somebody! 🙂 I still remember my own frustration with Canopus and inability to find any useful information. Good luck with all of your tapes!

[Gareth Williams]

I’m having a similar nightmare with this! I’m using a Canopus ADVC-55, in Premiere Pro CC, and it isn’t working! I’m trying to capture some old footage from a DVDR in a DVD player, and it’s driving me up the wall! I’ve selected ADVC-100 in capture device and think I’ve done everything it says above. It doesn’t make any difference if I set up the file before plugging the device in either. I know premiere is reading the device because when it’s plugged in (Firewire via Thunderbolt) it says “online” in Check Status in the DV/HDV Device Control Settings, if I unplug it it says “offline” but nothing happens in the monitor and you can’t capture/record anything. 🙁

[Alla Lowery]

Gareth,
Have you tried to contact Grass Valley support team? They should know more about this issue. Maybe, their older hardware was a bit different somehow. Most likely, Adobe CC scripts are different now, too.

Sorry, I’m still using CS5, so I don’t actually know much about CC. ?

Good luck!

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Gareth Williams] “I’m trying to capture some old footage from a DVDR in a DVD player, and it’s driving me up the wall!”

Could the DVD in question be protected somehow? Also if the player has HDMI port it’s probably HDCP encrypted.

[Jeff Pulera]

I believe the response from Tero is on the right track. Analog capture devices from Grass Valley, Matrox, etc. have always had issues capturing from DVD players due to copy protection being inserted into the video output – even if playing a DVD-R that you created yourself! So the copy protection does not need to be on the disc, the DVD player simply adds it to the analog output. Always.

What software do you edit with? If Adobe Premiere, then copy the .vob files from the DVD to your PC hard drive. You can then Import the .vob files into Premiere to edit directly. No “capture” needed.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Lee O.]

Gareth,

Is your footage already on DVD-Rs? If so, just copy the .vob files from the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD-R to your computer, change the file extension to .mpg, and drop them into an NTSC timeline. No capturing necessary.

[Gareth Williams]

Thanks for all the help, the DVD player may have protection somehow. I hadn’t thought about that. Actually when I last did this back in 2008 on an older 2005 Mac in Premiere 6.5, it worked, but I was using a different DVD player then, so the DVD player having a copyright security feature maybe the issue.

Next I will try the method suggested of copying the .vob files from the VIDEO_TS folder, and putting them in Premiere. Actually, Lee my timelines are PAL (UK thing!) but I get your point. This sounds too good to be true but I’ll give it a go. I didn’t know you could do that. Thanks for your help everybody. I’ll let you know how it goes.

[Lee O.]

If your DVDs are also PAL, it should work like a charm.